What do Lindsay Lohan, indie rocker M. Ward, and employees at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, have in common? One word: Kombucha. Lindsay has been caught sipping it, M. Ward dubbed it his “Best Purchase of the Past Year,” and Google worker bees do shots of it—but none of these Kombucha fans are getting much of a buzz. This cultured or fermented tea, made with bacteria and yeast, contains no more than 0.5 percent alcohol.
Some believe that Kombucha offers many health benefits, such as boosting the immune system, balancing metabolism, and even fighting cancer. People have been drinking it in China since 221 BC, and it can be brewed at home, but recently two bottled brands—Kombucha Wonder Drink and GT’s Raw Organic Kombucha—have been attracting big-name celebrities (like Madonna and Cher) and low-profile heath nuts alike.
However, not everybody is lovin’ this slightly fizzy elixir. I asked a few friends if they’d tried it. “We bought it once by mistake, thinking it was a new type of tea—but it was foul,” said Howard Draper of Denton, Texas. His wife, Renée, added, “I hate to throw things away, but we had to dump it after two sips.” New York City’s Phoebe McGee has been drinking a bottle a day for the past month, but she admits that it’s an acquired taste:
It tastes a little bit like vinegar. And there are things floating in it, which look a little bit like loogies … OK, a LOT like loogies.
No joke. The extensive text on bottles of GT’s Organic Raw Kombucha warns that “Strands of the culture may appear,” and they most certainly do. In other words, if you want to reap the potential health benefits, you gotta get past the goobers. McGee enjoys GT’s Gingerade flavor but recommends the Synergy Organic & Raw Mystic Mango for beginners because “the thick almost-puréed texture conceals the floaters.”
My taste test left me with a (possibly unrelated) stomachache. Has anyone else sampled this stuff?
I too bought it once by mistake thinking it was a gourmet tea of sorts and wow, it was tough to get down. It was fizzy and sour, but I didn’t want to throw it away. Then I went home and googled “kombucha” to what I just drank…seems like it’s effectiveness is still up for debate, falling under the realm of chinese herbal medicine which oftentimes is dodgy at best. I’ll take a live culture yogurt over this stuff any day.
This sounds like “tibicos.” My mother bought some live culture (we lovingly call them “animalitos”) that we have in a giant glass jar and feed them with “piloncillo” (one of the first products of sugar cane). We drink a glass every day = it is sour and fizzy and sometimes, it is so vinegary, I simply refuse to drink it. It could be a coincidence but my 60+ year parents heal better, feel better, and have fewer pains than before.
Your tummy ache could have been related. I’m the one who wrote the “home kombucha brewing” article you link to (thanks, btw). When you first start drinking kombucha you should start out slowly–two ounces a day to see how your internal cultures deal with it. I can drink a 16-oz bottle with no problems, but I’ve been brewing and drinking k-tea for a few years now.
If you buy bottled kombucha, you might want to strain it before drinking. That will get rid of the bits of scoby that form in the bottle. Strain right before drinking; the longer the bottle sits, the more a new culture will form. If you brew your own this is less of an issue, I’ve found. Always keep it refrigerated; leaving it out will increase culture growth, which is a good thing if you’re looking to get a culture to brew your own, but not so much if you intend to drink the bottled stuff.
Also less of an issue when you brew your own is how sour it gets. You can brew it until it’s so sour you can use it as vinegar on salads (a good use for a batch that gets away from you), or you can brew it so it’s still quite sweet. We like ours half sweet, half tart, and fizzy. Putting it up in EZ Cap bottles guarantees the fizz. Both my children (6 and 9.5) love it, as does my husband. It seems to help me with blood sugar levels and fibro pain, and when I first began drinking it my hair became less gray. (Time won out on that one. ;) ) I brew a gallon a week and we drink it all.
I am not a big fan of the GT’s kombucha. I almost gave up on it, but so glad I didn’t. The stuff is so pricey, I started brewing my own! I used a bottle of GT’s as a starter and haven’t bought kombucha in months.
I flavor my own brew with lots of ginger and like Lynn S., we like it pretty tart and fizzy. My 3 year old loves it. My husband thinks it is disgusting, but that means there’s more for us! And he can’t argue with the results.
I can’t vouch for all the wild health claims, but I do think it has been an important part of my new improved lifestyle (along with yoga, walking, eating whole, unprocessed foods and giving up sugar and white flour). Extra weight has literally melted away and I have no bloating, lots of energy. My skin is glowing and I feel wonderful.
I believe there is a happy medium between the people claiming it as a panacea and the people saying it’s dangerous. I believe it’s beneficial as a probiotic food. It seems that the people who consume lots of “live” foods like yogurt, kombucha, kefir, miso and sauerkraut seem to live longer and healthier.
I liked kombucha the first time I tried it, but then again, I love the taste of vinegar. But too much of it does give me a tummy ache, which is interesting since it has a similar ph to vinegar, which I often use to treat such aches. But I dilute vinegar and don’t do the same with kombucha, so that might explain the disparity.
A drink better enjoyed in shots rather than bottles in my opinion.
I was hesitant at first, but now I find myself craving the stuff!
I’ve been drinking the GT’s brand for a couple of weeks now and have grown to like it. At first, I found it not entirely pleasant, but now I like it. I also get a slight buzz from it. Could it be from the slight alcohol content? I don’t like the Wonderdrink brand. It doesn’t give me the buzz and it’s taste is stronger than GT’s.
At first I also had the experience of thinking it was a new type of iced tea drink and hated the first bottle I bought. However recently I’ve come around and am really loving the GT drinks, especially the Gingerade raw kombucha flavor, and the mango Synergy flavor. I haven’t tried all of them.
At some point I’d like to try brewing my own but my life is too hectic right now… also the prospect of having to deal with the “pancake” kind of grosses me out!
In the meantime, I’m drinking about 1 GT bottle a day… per a tip from a friend, I’ve been buying them by the case at Whole Foods — they give you 10% off when you buy a case. Still very pricey, but I really like the feeling it gives me and I can find other places to cut back my budget.